Sid Gribetz

Sid’s Contributions

May 2000 Albums

Eddy Louiss, the premier French organist, has a new record out, called Sentimental Feeling ostensibly to warmly recall his varied career. However, the scope of the album is much more limited, and the ersatz settings don't leave much space for true organ...

May 2000 Albums

Mike Nock is an international treasure. New Zealand-born, and beginning his career down under, Mike built a reputation in long stints in the U.S. playing with many jazz greats. Australian-based once again, Nock is a giant on that continent, but he still...

May 2000 Albums

Pianist Andy LaVerne, in his younger days in 1977, recorded an album for Steeplechase entitled Another World. The fresh-faced LaVerne, then a member of Stan Getz's band, penned a colorful group of pieces for that album, that were impressive for their impressionistic...

March 2000 Albums

Anthony Wonsey is a pianist who comes by way of Chicago, followed by a Berklee education, and now a few years cutting his teeth on the New York scene. Wonsey skillfully blends these elements on this album for Criss Cross. He has the soulful bite of the Windy...

March 2000 Albums

By now, organist Joey DeFrancesco should have secured his place among the masters of the B-3. This latest recording should confirm that status. The Champ is billed as a tribute to Jimmy Smith. As such, DeFrancesco utilizes Smith's early classic combo set...

March 2000 Albums

This disc presents the scores of two ballets composed by Giorgio Gaslini, in a style that bridges the concepts of classical formalism and the cool of a modern jazz quartet. The main piece, produced in 1995, is "Carmen Graffiti", based not on Bizet's opera...

March 2000 Albums

Helio Alves is a Brazilian-born pianist in his thirties who recently gained attention through his appearances with Joe Henderson, plus work with Claudio Roditi and Paquito D'Rivera. Alves is Berklee-educated and now in New York. This album, another of Reservoir...

March 2000 Albums

Charlie Mariano's musical life hearkens back to Boston and the vibrant early days of bebop in the 1940s. His career has taken many turns since then, through Kenton, Toshiko, and Mingus, then jazz rock, a life in Europe, and progressive sounds. A unifying...

March 2000 Albums

Until now, Bill Heid is perhaps most famous for his listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for the miles hitch-hiked (400,000, over thirty years). But while hitchhiking, Bill plied his trade as a soulful jazz and blues organist, and the experience...

March 2000 Albums

Modirzadeh, a director of the jazz/ world music program at San Francisco State University, presents a varied set of material on this album, befitting his interests. He opens with three small group sides of jazz standards, which he explores movingly on tenor...

March 2000 Albums

This is a group of South Florida- based musicians in their twenties. The leader, saxophonist Goldberg, displays a strong and assured tone and a maturity of style, rooted in swinging mainstream modern jazz coming out of the Miles mode. The piano-less group...

January/February 2000 Briefs

Kobayashi leads a trio on piano and electric keyboards, with the strong presence of Baba Elefante on electric fretted and fretless basses. There's an imposing backbeat on drums and percussion by Steve Dixon. The group streams through a program of light-hearted...

January/February 2000 Briefs

The Nettai band is an 18-piece powerhouse, composed of young Japanese musicians playing tropical music under the direction of Latin jazz vet Carlos Kanno. The band should be a world music marketer's dream, but it is more than that. On this, their second...

December 1999 Briefs

William Menefield (18 at the time of this recording) is a pianist from a musical family in the Cincinnati area. This debut album includes piano trio pieces and some combo sides aided by trumpeter Mike Wade and Kevin Engel on tenor sax. The session includes...

December 1999 Briefs

Percussionist Ricky Loza is a native of El Salvador now living in Washington, DC. This album is a piano combo, with additional rhythm. The program includes jazz standards, and originals by his bandmates, pianist Fred Hughes and bassist Tom Williams. The...

December 1999 Briefs

John Moulder is a guitarist who plays with a wide space of openness and warmth. He is at home in both the electric, swinging aspects as well as the softer, sleepier sounds of this genre. On this album, he plays original compositions that lend themselves...